Abstract
Developmental noise—which level may vary within a certain backlash allowed by natural selection—is a reflection of the state of a developing system or developmental stability. Phenotypic variations inside the genetically determined norm observed in case of fluctuating asymmetry provide a unique opportunity for evaluating this form of ontogenetic variability. Low levels of developmental noise for the biologic system under study is observed under certain conditions, while its increase acts as a measure of stress. The concordance of changes in developmental stability with changes in other parameters of developmental homeostasis indicates the significance of fluctuating asymmetry estimates. All this determines the future prospects of the study of fluctuating asymmetry not only for developmental biology, but also for population biology. The study of developmental stability may act as the basis of an approach of population developmental biology to assess the nature of the phenotypic diversity and the state of natural populations under various impacts and during evolutionary transformations.
Highlights
Fluctuating asymmetry, as minor deviations from perfect symmetry, is usually referred to a developmental noise [1,2,3,4]
The purpose of this study is an attempt to assess the significance of fluctuating asymmetry, as a measure of ontogenetic noise, both for assessing homeorhesis in developmental biology—and for assessing the state of an organism in solving various problems in the field of population biology
Achievement of this goal assumes a sequential consideration of the entire necessary range of issues: what is fluctuating asymmetry and how to evaluate its value, what are the results of its study in laboratory experiments and in nature and what could be applicability of such an analysis in the fields of developmental biology and population biology
Summary
Fluctuating asymmetry, as minor deviations from perfect symmetry, is usually referred to a developmental noise [1,2,3,4]. Special studies indicate the interest of analyzing fluctuating asymmetry due to the special nature of this form of variability [5,6,7,8,9] Further research in this direction is aimed at developing integrated approaches for a comprehensive assessment of different types of symmetry and possible deviations from it [10,11,12,13]. The purpose of this study is an attempt to assess the significance of fluctuating asymmetry, as a measure of ontogenetic noise, both for assessing homeorhesis in developmental biology—and for assessing the state of an organism in solving various problems in the field of population biology. It seems important to make a try to identify the main reasons for possible uncertainties that may appear in a process of fluctuating asymmetry analysis
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